So I had another chance to test out my own perception of the "meta for starters" tonight. My nemesis (he knows who he is!) showed up with a very cool imperial lists. Lots of clever synergy; bold, but also thoughtful (and 24 hull between 4 ships, nothing to sneeze at). I had ABXY, which are actually the four ships I bought for my kid without much strategic thinking, although I did proxy the one proton rocket. I thought it was a good squad, but certainly not at the level that would make a good discussion on this reddit.

More simply put, I thought I was dead.

Anyhow, the scuffle started and it turns out we spent a lot of time parked on asteroids. Or bumping our friends. My Luke never landed a hit as far as I can recall, despite being 1/3 of my list's cost (he did regenerate some shields, though). The sprockets never even fired before the A-wing became dust. I must further admit that my Green die were too hot to handle, which skewed the outcome my way. But that's not the point of this post.

I have no doubt that I could have had a better list. I suspect that I could have had a worse list and still won if I hadn't French-kissed those rocks or gotten lucky. Conversely, I also have little doubt that there were chances missed by my opponent in the confusion of collisions, bumping, and general chaos, and that he could have splattered the remains of my squad against his TIE's windshields.

(weird metaphor - do you need wipers in space? Surely you hit something once in a parsec???)

TL,DR: top lists are cool and of course are par for the course at top events. But XWTMG is a game of skill; having a magic oaken hockey stick doesn't help much on average unless you play in the NHL where every last little bit of advantage can make the difference. For guys at my skill level, making sure to have fun is - I propose - a fine way to go. Worry about the fancy builds later. You might even get rewarded with red-hot green die. :)